Caritas Internationalis

The Scottish Climate Change Bill is one of the first pieces of domestic climate change legislation to be passed in the world. Thanks to campaigners and many parliamentarians it is also, to date, the most progressive climate change legislation in a number of key areas.

The 2020 target

The Bill contains an interim target that commits Scotland to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 42% on 1990 levels by 2020. This target is not only the highest emissions reduction target proposed or legislated by any developed country, it is also in line with what the science calls for. Scotland is now committed to cutting its emissions deeply and quickly, exactly what is needed if we are to prevent dangerous climate change.

The Scottish Climate Change Bill also commits Scotland to reducing its emissions by 80% by 2050, equal to the 2050 target contained in the UK’s Climate Change Act.

Annual targets

The Scottish Climate Change Bill is built around a regime of legally-binding annual targets, which are set by ministers with reference to a number of specified criteria and the 2020 and 2050 targets. From 2020, the Bill states that Scotland must reduce its emissions by at least 3% per year. Further, because the Bill requires ministers to set annual targets at levels which will deliver a 42% reduction by 2020, annual emissions reductions targets prior to 2020 will also have to be around 3% or higher.

By demonstrating this system can work, the Scottish Bill offers others the opportunity to also adopt annual targets, which are the most transparent and responsive method of emissions accounting.

Domestic effort target

The Bill contains a domestic effort target that ensures at least 80% of each year’s emissions reductions are real reductions from sources in Scotland. Although EU Emissions Trading Scheme credits are exempted from this limit, it demonstrates a vital principle that countries should, as far as possible, avoid buying their way out of their climate responsibilities.

The domestic effort target is strongly supported by Scottish electricity companies, who see the potential in committing to a new generation of renewable energy, rather than allowing Scotland’s infrastructure to stagnate and buying credits to pay for its underperformance.

Reporting consumption-based emissions

While the legally-binding targets at the heart of the Bill refer to emissions produced in Scotland, the Bill also requires the Government to calculate and report on emissions produced anywhere in the world that result from Scotland’s consumption of goods and services.

This is a significant step forward in helping rich countries understand their responsibility for climate change; it demonstrates that justifying inaction by blaming India and China is an untenable position, as a huge portion of both India and China’s emissions result from the production of goods for developed country markets.

This measure will also make it difficult to ‘hide’ emissions overseas by closing Scottish businesses and outsourcing their work, which would make little difference to Scotland’s overall carbon footprint.

A ‘fair and safe’ emissions budget

The Bill enshrines in law the principle that all annual emissions reductions targets should be set with a view to not exceeding the ‘fair and safe’ Scottish emissions budget, which is defined as the amount that would prevent dangerous climate change. This approach is necessary because it is cumulative emissions, the build up of year on year emissions in the atmosphere, not emissions in any one target year that cause dangerous climate change.

Also, by requiring Scotland to reduce its emissions within a ‘fair’ budget, the Scottish Bill recognises in law that rich nations like Scotland are bound by a moral duty to make deeper cuts than less wealthy countries, many of whom are already suffering the worst effects of climate change despite doing the least to cause it.

Inclusion of international aviation and shipping emissions

Scotland’s emissions reductions targets also include Scotland’s share of emissions from international aviation and shipping. Although it has been announced that the UK plans to include such emissions in its accounts and targets, the Scottish Bill is the first law to require their inclusion from the start.

In addition, the government will be required to take advice on, and then apply, appropriate multipliers to greenhouse gas emissions from aviation. This recognises in law that emissions at altitude have a more damaging impact than the same gases at ground level.

The Road to Copenhagen

Combined, these key requirements ensure that Scotland has a robust and progressive Climate Change Bill that commits Scotland to doing its fair share to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. While Scotland’s overall contribution to global emissions may be small, the Bill can have a positive impact on the UN climate change negotiations to agree the successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which culminate in Copenhagen later this year.

The Scottish Bill demonstrates that a developed country, responsible for climate change, is willing to reduce its emissions in line with science and not bow to political expediency. Scotland’s targets are also not contingent on the targets of other countries, like so many developed countries’ targets are. The challenge is now for other developed countries to match Scotland’s ambition so that we can break the deadlock that currently pervades the UN climate change negotiations.